RPWL - A New Dawn album review

Live recording of German proggers’ multimedia show

Somewhere over the last 40 years, prog lost its sense of theatre. Partly, no doubt, because many of its modern exponents can no longer afford to stage concerts in castles made of ice or floating amphitheatres. So the show that RPWL put on in their native Bavaria to showcase 2014’s Wanted album – complete with spoof TV reports, invading armour-clad legions and live sword fights – was a refreshingly ambitious affair that impresses on the DVD equivalent of this release.

While the live CD version cuts some of the spoken-word elements, the music stands up on its own regardless. In particular, the marching anthemics of Swords And Guns and Still Asleep’s Final Cut-style melancholia are stirring and haunting in equal measure, whatever the medium.

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